The Library of Legends

3.5*

3.5 stars. The Library of Legends is an intriguing concept and a very interesting point of time and place to tell a story. I'm very unfamiliar with Asian history and find it very captivating. I was drawn to this particular book because it has three things I love in stories - history, books and folklore/fairytales all wrapped into one. Just shy of WW2 in China, the Japanese are invading and sending the country into turmoil. Despite that, people risk their lives to save a treasure of Chinese literature. Crossing a war torn countryside to get the books to safety they face dividing political lines among themselves and dangers without and within. Their travels, though, are also paralleled with the mystical and fantastical. Gods and goddesses, stars and spirits are also on the move and their paths intertwine with each other along the way. There are star-crossed lovers and friendship and mystery. The writing was very atmospheric and the story a comfortable read, despite some of the subject matter. Where I felt it fell a bit short for me was a sense of urgency was missing, even though it felt like that should have been the core of the story and though I liked the characters, I didn't love them. I felt no deep connection to any of them. Considering the subject matter, I thought I'd feel more or be moved more by the story and it just never got there. Having said that, this was by no means a bad book. I still enjoyed it and enjoyed learning about something in history I knew nothing about previously told through the lense of magic realism.

I really wanted to like this book! On paper, the premise of students fleeing with books containing ancient legends and myths from China during the second Sino-Japanese War sounded really appealing! I was intrigued by the inclusion of Historical Fantasy, in the form of these mythical creatures and people fleeing japan for the Kunlun Mountain, ostensibly because of the conflict. These immortal creatures (phoenixes, kirins, city gods, etc.) can only be seen by very few mortals, and the inclusion of their departures highlights the conflict that China underwent during this period. Essentially, the gods fled China during this period of war and conflict and left mortals to manage on their own.

Unfortunately, I thought the rest of the book was lackluster. The characters were a little flat, and there were romance elements I could have done without. There was also the brief inclusion of some political elements, where the main character, Lian, is coerced into spying on her fellow students for the government, but I never really felt drawn into hers or anyone else's story. I thought the ending was a nice period on a lukewarm story, but not enough for it to improve my feelings about the story any.

This book has a lot going for it. It's a historical fiction, with elements of myth and magical realism, overarching the main plot of romance, with a minor side story skirting political thriller. However, it just doesn't go deep enough into any of these to give it 5 stars. The war is all around, but the characters move through it largely unaffected, which means it also doesn't touch the reader. While I could do without the fear and violence usually provoked from a war story, the lack of passion and depth in the romance is tragic and almost ruins the whole narrative. It was wanting to read more about the deities that really kept me reading, although I never quite got my fill of that either. I also wanted to hear more about the tensions between the two deeply patriotic but divisive political parties amidst a war. Although the book can be considered pretty shallow in those respects, I thoroughly enjoyed reading every word of it.

My overall feelings for this book are positive. The glimpses into the mythical beings were resplendent in their descriptions. Even if they were, for the most part, just a glimpse. The look into China before communism is very interesting. I enjoyed the secret meetings and the way the author displayed the difference in worldview among the characters. Also, the awakening of the Minghua 123's view of the societal differences between classes and the intense poverty of the refugees. I do have some questions though. Why did we just pass over the fact that Sparrow was a murderer? Was that a plot device to make us accept the fact that they don't end up together because we are now conflicted about her? What portion of the Library of Legends was Shao holding? In general, I wish that we could have gotten more of the other legends as they were traveling, especially the ones where we saw the beings on their way to Kunlun Mountain. I wanted to know more than just the one. As I said, my overall feelings were positive, but I feel like the ending of this book was put together with a bandaid. While I am happy with the outcome of the story, I wish the pieces fell together more organically. Instead of everything coming together perfectly in the last 20 pages.